Re: Knight of the Cart

["John S. Quarterman" <jsq@matrix.net>]

>Dear Jean
>
>Very interesting.  I was unaware of any translation.  I would interested to
>read it. The Department of Romance Languages at Princeton University in
>America has a ongoing project. you can find it at
>http://www.princeton.edu/~lancelot/.

Princeton includes a modern French translation in there.

According to Stanford's medieval studies dept., there is an English
translation:

 Chevalier de la Charrette. English. Lancelot, or, The knight of the cart
 = Le chevalier de la charrete/Chretien de Troyes; edited and translated
 by William W. Kibler.
      IMPRINT: New York: Garland Pub., 1981. LOCATION: Green Library
      Stacks PQ1445.L3 1981 (Library has c.1). SERIES: Garland library
      of medieval literature; v.  1. Series A

Amazon.com also lists
 The Complete Romances of Chretien De Troyes by David Staines (Editor)

And there's one on the net; see below.

>  Of the revisions of de Troyes work the
>one cited by Charles Méla is the most readable modern French version.  How
>faithful it is I am not skilled enough to tell.  I must defer once again to
>Wallace-Murphy (Cher Tim, encore une fois cher ami que nous devons faire
>appel à vous.)  Reading Wallace-Murphy writings make us know that we are
>fortunate to have such an expert on this list.  I see why Niven admires him
>so much.
>
>The first quatrain from the Old French
>
>1           Des que ma dame de Chanpaigne
>2        Vialt que romans a feire anpraigne,
>3        Je l'anprendrai mout volentiers,
>4        Come cil qui est suens antiers
>
>and from the Modern one version which was done in Paris in 1989 .
>
>1      Du moment que ma dame de Champagne
>2      Désire que j'entreprenne un récit en français,
>3      Je l'entreprendrai très volontiers,
>4      Comme quelqu'un qui lui appartient entièrement,
>
>The old is a bit like trying to read middle English.

"(Vv. 1-30.) Since my lady of Champagne wishes me to undertake to write
a romance, (1) I shall very gladly do so, being so devoted to her
service as to do anything in the world for her, without any intention
of flattery. But if one were to introduce any flattery upon such an
occasion, he might say, and I would subscribe to it, that this lady
surpasses all others who are alive, just as the south wind which blows
in May or April is more lovely than any other wind. But upon my word, I
am not one to wish to flatter my lady. I will simply say: "The Countess
is worth as many queens as a gem is worth of pearls and sards." Nay I
shall make no comparison, and yet it is true in spite of me; I will say,
however, that her command has more to do with this work than any thought
or pains that I may expend upon it. Here Chretien begins his book about
the Knight of the Cart. The material and the treatment of it are given
and furnished to him by the Countess, and he is simply trying to carry
out her concern and intention. Here he begins the story."

 From CHRETIEN DETROYES: ARTHURIAN ROMANCES,
 (Trans: W.W. Comfort; Everyman's Library, London, 1914).
 http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/OMACL/Lancelot/lancelot1.html

John S. Quarterman <jsq@matrix.net>
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